1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the dynamic creation of content for mobile devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for dynamically delivering various content such as images, audio and video to any type of mobile device, irrespective of file format supported thereby and the display characteristics thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The network of computers known as the Internet has made a great deal of information available to users, particularly in the form of World Wide Web (hereafter, Web) pages. This information is typically formatted for browsers based upon Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which was designed for machines with a large screen and powerful input mechanisms, such as keyboards, mouse and touch screens, for example.
There is, however, an emerging class of mobile and/or wireless devices that are capable of displaying data. These include mobile phones with browsers based upon the Wireless Markup Language (WML) protocol, interactive pagers, and handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), for example. Such devices support a wide variety of file formats and standards. Moreover, such devices have relatively smaller screens and limited input capabilities, as compared to full-fledged desktop computing devices.
As each mobile device may support different file formats and have different display characteristics (such as screen size, resolution, color support, number of colors supported, etc.) it is difficult, time intensive and costly to timely convert even a fraction of the content present on the Web into a format that is suitable to each of the mobile devices in existence as well as those currently being developed.
The current generation of mobile devices incorporates a data-based browser; WML is one example, HDML and CHTML are other examples that are popular in different parts of the world. The browser is configured to make a request for content to a content server and the requested content (which may include text and/or image in future multimedia applications—plug-ins, etc.) is returned to the browser by the content server. Whereas desktop computing devices often have large screen capable of displaying a variety of image types (such as JPEG, GIF, PNG, etc.), mobile (e.g., wireless) devices typically have only a small screen that may be capable of displaying as little as two to four lines of text. One protocol used by wireless device to connect is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP defines an image format for wireless devices known as Wireless Bitmap format (WBMP) defined by the WAP-190-WAE specification, incorporated herein by reference. Most first-generation “Internet-Ready” mobile devices only support WBMP, which may not be supported by typical desktop browsers.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional system for providing content to mobile devices. As shown therein, a server 104 is coupled to a network 102, such as the Internet. Also shown at 116, 118 and 120 are Web sites, such as may be accessed by desktop computers or other Internet appliances. A number of mobile wireless devices are also coupled to the network 102, such as interactive pager 108, PDA 110 or mobile telephones 112 and 114. Each of these mobile devices may support different file formats and may have different display characteristics. Note, however, that wireless content need not originate from Web sites. Indeed, wireless content may originate, for example, from email, databases, directories or any computer software application. To deliver versions of the Web sites 116, 118 and 120 to the mobile devices 108, 110, 112 and 114, multiple versions of the Web sites 116, 118 and 120 must be maintained by the server 104. That is, the server 104 must conventionally store a separate version of each Web site for each mobile device 108, 110, 112 and 114, unless two or more mobile devices share the same display characteristics and support the same file format(s), language, etc. In fact, a single file (such as an image), might be pre-converted and stored prior to any user request by any of the mobile devices 108, 110, 112 and 114 and stored many times in various formats, such as color or black and white; black on white or white on black, GIF or WBMP. Moreover, these same files may required to be stored in multiple sizes for each of the mobile devices 108, 110, 112 and 114. This state of affairs is illustrated in FIG. 1 at 106, which references a database in which images from the Web sites 116, 118 and 120 have been pre-converted and stored therein in a format suitable for each of the mobile devices 108, 110, 112 and 114 (shown in dashed lines to indicate the type of mobile device to which each displayed image is suited).
Another disadvantage of the system of FIG. 1 is the server's ability to decide which file format to use in response to a request for content. Indeed, when a mobile device, such as shown at 108, 110, 112 or 114 makes a request for content, the server 104 (or whatever device or process that fields the request) must, in addition to the file format, decide in what size and aspect ratio to deliver the requested content. For example, how does the server 104 determine whether the requesting mobile device 108, 110, 112 or 114 has a screen measuring 100 by 50 pixels or 300 by 100 pixels (thus requiring the same image, but in a larger size)? One prior solution to this problem has been to use alternate addresses for the content suited to each mobile device. However, such as solution does not alleviate the need to pre-convert (typically even before any mobile device has requested the file) and store multiple versions of the same file. Accordingly, using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a mobile device 108 might be configured to request content from the Universal Resource Locator (URL) http://server.domain.com/wireless/file.device108, which will return a file “file.device108” that includes a reference to the image to be displayed on the mobile device 108; namely, http://server.domain.com/images/picture.device108. Likewise, mobile device 112 might be configured to request content (such as images and/or text, for example) from the URL http://server.domain.com/wireless/file.device112, which will return a file “file.device112” that includes a reference to the image to be displayed on the mobile device 112; namely, http://server.domain.com/images/picture.device108.
As “Internet Ready” mobile devices become the norm and as new devices are introduced into the marketplace (each potentially with its own unique combination of supported file formats and display characteristics), the burden of maintaining the database of pre-converted images 106 becomes unduly burdensome. Such a file delivery model does not scale well and will eventually become untenable, both functionally and economically.
What are needed, therefore, are methods and systems for more efficiently delivering content to mobile devices, irrespective of the display characteristics thereof and the file format supported.